Mumia Abu-Jamal commentary: Venezuela and presidential legitimacy

The following slightly edited commentary was written by political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and is posted on Prison Radio.

Jan. 24 — Now the U.S. President (Donald Trump) has decided that he will determine who is, and who isn’t, the legitimate leader of a foreign country.

He has said that Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela was illegitimate, and he supported Maduro’s opponent for national leadership of the country.

What if Maduro declared that Trump, who received some 3 million less votes than his opponent, Hillary Clinton, was illegitimate?

Who would listen?

For, in truth, Trump sits in the White House only because of the slavery-era artifact known as the Electoral College — an institution designed to deny democracy to millions of Africans, and to assure Southern hegemony.

Isn’t the so-called Electoral College fundamentally illegitimate? The Electoral College should be immediately abolished!

In a Sept. 9, 2018, edition of the New York Times, Trump officials touched base with Venezuelan military officials to support a coup against President Maduro.

For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the U.S. decided who should rule in Latin America, based upon such nonsense as the Monroe Doctrine, a pretext for U.S. imperialism.

Lest we miss the play, Monroe is back.

What a shame!